UAE businessman Khalaf Al Habtoor cancels all planned investments in Lebanon

Entrepreneur blamed instability for the sale of all his properties in the country

Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of UAE-based conglomerate Al Habtoor Group, has investments in the hospitality and retail sectors in Lebanon. Photo: Antonie Robertson/The National

UAE-based businessman Khalaf Al Habtoor is cancelling all planned investments in Lebanon, a few days after he announced his intention to invest in a large-scale project there.

The chairman of UAE-based conglomerate Al Habtoor Group took the decision “due to lack of security and stability and the lack of any horizon for improvement in the near future”, in Lebanon, Mr Al Habtoor said on social media platform X on Tuesday.

He also plans to sell all his properties and investments in Lebanon. Mr Al Habtoor also said along with his family and his group's managers, he would refrain from travelling there.

“These decisions were not taken in a vacuum, but rather came as a result of careful study and in-depth monitoring of the situation there,” he said.

As of January last year, the Habtoor Group's investments in Lebanon amounted to about $1 billion. These investments covered various sectors, including funds placed within the Lebanese banking system, luxury hotels affiliated with Hilton Hotels and Resorts, a shopping mall, a 100,000-square-metre leisure destination called Habtoor Land and other property ventures.

Lebanon's Ottomon-era Nabatieh market looks to rebuild after devastation of war

02:16

Mr Al Habtoor's latest remarks come after he had said on Friday that he would invest in a “large and ambitious” project in Lebanon once the new government is formed.

The initiative “has a vision to contribute to the economic renaissance and provide thousands of jobs, to be a real addition to support the Lebanese economy and restore confidence in it”, he said. He did, however, stress at the time that any new investment will depend on the right formation of the government.

This month, Lebanon’s Parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun as President − ending a power vacuum since 2022. Mr Aoun nominated Nawaf Salam as the new prime minister and entrusted him with the responsibility to form a new government. Both men are seen as being apart from Lebanon's entrenched ruling classes, who are accused of mismanaging the country. Neither candidate was favoured by Hezbollah, which previously dominated Lebanese politics.

Lebanon's economy struggled after the government defaulted on about $31 billion of eurobonds in March 2020, with its currency sinking more than 90 per cent against the dollar on the black market.

The conflict with Israel last year led to a further deterioration of its economy, with physical damages and economic losses due to the conflict estimated at $8.5 billion, according to a World Bank report in November.

On Monday, the Lebanese government confirmed it had agreed to a three-week extension of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, after consultations with the US. The two sides reached an initial agreement to end hostilities in November.